[RC] My helmet saved me BUT off my horse - LRN8554
Yesterday, while riding in the Tellico Mts. of E. Tennessee, I finally got
my helmet to pay for itself. We had ridden about 9 miles and it was really
getting hot and I suggested a shortcut to save a couple of miles. This
particular shortcut was straight down so we were off, leading our horses, I had
already slipped on my rear twice and was putting as much distance between my
horse and myself as I could in case she had the trouble standing I was
having. The next 30 seconds went by in a blink. I heard my sister
screaming, dogs howling, and the sounds of running hooves. My next sound
was the clunk of my helmet hitting the ground. (You guys all know that
sound, the one when you duck under a tree limb and don't quite make it.)
Well, Sherry had gotten into ground bees, we refer to the little b------'s as
yellow-jackets, her horse had charged forward, bucking, (how she managed to do
that on that slope is beyond me) slammed into my shoulder which launched me into
space and on my head, I then flipped once and landed on my hip. I
jumped up to see her horse disappearing down the hill and Sherry is screaming
bloody murder, yelling RUN, and she is trying to get away. My horse is
back up the slope right where she was when I got knocked off, I crawled up,
grabbed her reins and we slid most of the way down. Got to where we could
stand and Sherry is still covered in bees, they seemed to be after her butt and
eyes, luckily her sunglasses seemed to be protecting her eyes as there were bees
all on the rims. Her butt did not fare so well, she was probably stung
about 30 times. Sizing up the situation, I'm delighted to find out that my
horse and I have not been stung, my helmet is cracked and the outside shell has
come off, but other than spitting out grit and my shoulder hurting, I'm
okay. Sherry is horseless, stung all over, and her dogs are biting at all
the bee stings on their bodies. I remind her that she is the hiker in our
family and that I brought my horse to ride and that the only way she was riding
out was if she started going into shock. Sisterly love abounds. I
figured she'd have to walk all the way back to the trailer but we found her
horse about a mile down the trail. Moral of the story---wear those
helmets---AND---hope for an early killing frost to get rid of the
bees....... Linda Norton
